Accord's Blocked aCcounts
by MorayInTheWreck
Summary: Everything that lives is designed to end. But that doesn't mean it always ends in the same way. Ending tonight: Innocence, and the hopes of the last of humanity.
1. Chapter 1

Orbiting the Earth, a teenage girl tried very hard to pretend she was deaf.

"Yonah, it's time for breakfast."

She groaned. Clearly, it wasn't working.

"I'm dead."

"It's still time for breakfast."

"I have a lethal disease."

"That can't be transmitted to androids. It's still time for breakfast."

"I bet none of the other humans have to come down for breakfast."

"The other humans are in cryogenic suspension. They'd be _happy_ to be able to have breakfast."

"Then find one of them."

" _Yonah_."

Yonah sighed and rolled out of bed.

"I'm up, I'm up. Geeze, sorry _mom_. I'll be right over."

"I'm glad to hear it. I'm sure everyone will be eager to see you again."

Yonah tossed her pillow out towards the door. She knew 15H would dodge, but it was the principle of the thing. It also meant she wouldn't have anyone looking for half a second so she could duck into her closet and get dressed. Nothing against androids in general, save for the fact they were slave driving monsters, but she preferred to have some privacy.

How little she had meant Yonah had learned to get dressed fast.

That done, she stumbled out into the hall, 15 behind her, watching for any real or imagined threat.

"That's a very pretty skirt, Yonah. I'm pleased to see you ready for the day."

"Not like I had a choice."

"You can always choose your attitude, Yonah. You represent humanity for all of us, almost as much as the council. And if you can keep it together, that makes it easier to remember what we're fighting for."

"Which is why I'm only grouchy and awful with you."

Yonah opened the door to the "breakfast room", something she was pretty sure humans didn't have before the aliens invaded and left androids having to sort everything out themselves.

Her "family" was waiting inside, hosts of younger sisters, a few brothers, and den mother White herself in front of the the room, waiting for the latest broadcast from the council to finish.

"To all our brave android forces on the surface, do not lose heart. Even today, YoRHa prepares for the final strike. Every human waits for your success. And…"

Yonah felt her heart freeze. No. No no no no no. She prayed to every god humanity had ever worshipped that the next lines wouldn't follow _that_ pattern.

"Reunion with our scattered brethren. Little Yonah is alone, cut off from the rest of her kind and her ancient home as long as the machines hold her home hostage."

The baby pictures showed on the screen. Again.

She silently wondered if she would ever see the old gods in person. If so, she was _definitely_ going to kill them.

"YoRHa is the weapon that will drive off the machines. But they need your help. They need your courage. The end is in sight. As long as you hold onto hope.

Glory to mankind!"

The room echoed with the response. At least, until 15H coughed.

The commander turned away from the screen and towards Yonah.

"...I'm sorry you had to see that."

"I'm used to it by now. Keeps up morale, right? People need something to believe in."

Yonah yanked the chair out and slid into her usual position.

"Besides. They're fighting and dying. The rest of humanity is locked away in cold sleep, only let out to check in on a losing war. Meanwhile, I'm getting an embarrassing baby picture shown off every once in a while. Can't say I'm doing too bad."

"I'm glad you can see it that way."

15H shook her head and smiled.

"And yet, when I ask you to wake up five minutes earlier…"

Yonah shot back a glare, and turned to face mo… Commander White again.

"Anyway, what's for breakfast? The usual?"

"Not today. Our scouting parties found something special. Herring."

"...Herring?"

"A kind of fish. From Earth. Humans called them 'Kippers', according to the pod database. They thought you'd appreciate a taste of… your home."

Yonah smiled as best she could and tried to think positively. Sometimes these things went well. Astronaut ice cream? Good! Despite the emergency substitute ingredients, it was still one of the best things she'd ever tasted.

On the other hand, the attempts at more "authentic" human cuisine were more often… not good. She knew from the thousand yard stares that mom and her kid siblings on Earth had seen and done worse than they'd ever mention to her, but until she saw the war a little closer, 6O's attempts at making "lobster thermidor" from the usual ingredients would have to stay at the gold standard for crime against all that was once sacred.

The fact 6O was carrying the plate forward, probably smiling under her veil, was not a very promising sign.

Still, she nodded and took her fork to pick up a small, oddly cut little thing that had once been alive and swimming on her homeworld. Something that humans of old and the resistance alike probably thought of as a nothing food, the kind of thing that you could have every day.

And maybe they'd have it again. Maybe she could have this again if she liked it, a big meal with Commander White and some of her friends on Earth. Like Jackass. Jackass sounded fun, if half the stories the Comomder had when she had a little too much to drink were true. She could introduce the other humans to them, and they'd all be impressed how well she knew the new world, and then… well. That was still at least a little ways off. For now, she had to find out if she liked kippers, or if she'd have to 'explain' that humans didn't _really_ like them and that the old documents were just making jokes.

Yonah took a bite. Not bad. Not great, and a pretty distinct flavor, but not bad at all, assuming you didn't mind a bit of an oily taste.

"Thank you. It's delicious."

Yonah _thought_ 6O was smiling earlier. Now she knew for sure.

"I'll tell 2B next time we talk. She's going to be thrilled. Not that she'll say anything, but she will be."

6O's eyes darted to the commander for a second, and back.

"I mean, I'll tell her when it's not interrupting official communications. And when it won't use bandwidth, which I have been very careful with."

"I know you will. So, how's everyone doing on Earth?"

Yonah smiled and nodded at the endless babbling brook of a conversation emerging from the Operator's mouth. Between operational security and 6O's general areas of interest, she knew there wasn't going to be anything actually useful in the stream. But that was fine. It was pleasant, it wasn't anything she'd have to remember later, and it meant she'd escape any kind of questioning White might produce on plans for the day.

Living in the Bunker was limiting enough already. Best to preserve the little freedom she had as well as she could.

Before too long, the meal was done, the plate was slid away, and White was deep enough in some datastream or other from the council that Yonah could slip away with a polite thank you.

If she could just duck 15, the day would be hers. She was in the hall before anyone could catch her or ask about plans. Maybe she'd be able to get to the low gravity areas, snatch bubbles of water out of the air. The operators sometimes had stories, that would be a decent way to handle the pre…

"The commander had some books she'd like you to study, when you have time."

She didn't have time. Probably because she didn't manage to duck 15.

"Ugghhh. Come on! You know there's not going to be anything new."

"Maybe not, but it's best that you can say it with confidence. You don't want to appear uneducated compared to the other humans. It would make me look bad."

"And how you look when the humans come back is the most important thing."

15H smiled.

"Of course. Combat models might have an excuse to be uncouth, but I plan to be dealing with the rest of you on a regular basis. If I don't prove myself with you, how can I expect to spend any time with the civilized humans?"

"I'm sorry for suspecting anything. You're obviously looking out for me purely out of the goodness of your heart."

"Exactly. Today, we're focusing on art history, focusing on the late middle ages."

"Not like I'm ever going to see them."

"Of course not. Earth's been occupied by the enemy for thousands of years, and the machines have no more appreciation for art than for anything else. But androids still have a duty to remember so things can be rebuilt once the war is won."

Yonah snatched the book out of the air and wished she was in the hangar. Some things were easier in low g.

"Uh-huh. You know, I'm technically older than you."

"Yes."

"And I'm a human. You're supposed to obey humans."

"Close. If you were paying attention, you might remember that we're meant to protect and aid humanity. If obedience would mean we couldn't do our jobs, then that would be a problem. We'd be no better than the machines."

"But I'm still older than you."

"Yes. And the Commander is older than _you_ , and the Commander trusts me to keep you from making any mistakes that could negatively impact the war effort. Considering how much effort that's been, I'm surprised that you survived long enough for YoRHa to form."

Yonah shook her head and opened the book. She'd seen a little old Earth art before. What humans thought was important enough to pass onto future generations, and what they hadn't been able to protect.

She liked it anyway. Honestly, she might have liked it more for being gone. Liked it more for giving a cost to the war, giving it a scale.

It was dead friends, of course. Family that never came back, or lost time without an answer for what happened. But that was all new. And it killed humans, but she'd never met another human. The ones who'd been frozen knew what they'd lost, but for her it was just numbers and graphs.

Art? Pictures of what the war lost her? That let her feel sad without feeling like she'd break down. It made the war real enough without forcing her into the middle of it.

"As nice as it is to see you enthusiastic for a subject for once, you probably shouldn't be reading in the middle of a hallway."

Yonah rolled her eyes, but moved all the same. 15 was right. Impeding YoRHa was pretty low on the list of her life goals. Not on her list at all, if she was honest.

She paused.

"Uh, question."

"Go on."

"Can I study in the center ring? I think there are studies suggesting that the brain learns easier in low gravity."

"The pods didn't have those studies on file when I cross referenced them."

"Why did you even _check_?"

"I don't get deployed with the landing parties. We don't often have someone come back in good enough shape that I'm needed. Which means my job is watching after you, and I should do it right."

Yonah looked down. Then paused.

"That's not a no."

15H smiled.

"I suppose not. Which might be why I cleared some space for you to study in low gravity, despite the complete lack of evidence it will do any good."

"Thank you!"

"Just don't…"

But Yonah was already running for the center ring. She jumped off the wall, exalting in the freedom of space, the small gift that came closest to compensating for never knowing her homeworld.

She flipped through the book and felt the weight of the world fall back to the world. 15H occasionally coughed when her eyes drifted away from the page, but her eyes weren't the important part of the exercise. It wasn't like she'd forget about the book when and if she was quizzed on art history. She was just more interested in everything else. The silence. (Well, mostly the silence. There was a blaring alarm and a brief few words from one of the operators, but they weren't saying anything right now.) The weightlessness. The solitude.

...The solitude.

Yonah's eyes darted around the room.

Apparently, her minder was part of whatever emergency merited a siren, and assumed that Yonah either could be trusted to manage herself for the duration, or wouldn't notice that she was alone until the crisis had passed. Not the worst assumptions in the world, not with the art of the lost Earth and the freedom of space holding her between them. A rather sensible one, really, one that wasn't any kind of mark against good old number fifteen who had provided such excellent service to YoRHa in the past.

Just this once, it happened to be a wrong one. But if Yonah hurried, it wouldn't be one likely to cause either of them any harm. Yonah, after all, had just the place in mind, and just the route mapped out for just this kind of occasion, the kind of opportunity she'd never seen in her life and might never see again until she was, what, thirty? Old enough that the war would be won and she'd be passed about between her fellow human beings, and the bunker might well be decommissioned.

She didn't have that long a life, on a grand scale. Why waste it ignoring such an interesting opportunity?

Five minutes later, Yonah was confident there were several very good reasons to "waste" her life that way. For one thing, she'd probably have much more life to waste. The route seemed simple enough when you heard about it. A few quick leaps, some cut corners, nothing too fancy. But the problem was she'd heard about it from _YoRHa_ _androids._ As in the cutting edge ultimate weapons built to win the war, where even the non-combat scanners and operators were more durable and capable than the average resistance model on Earth. As in the resistance models who were built based on thousands of years of design iteration on an initial template that made baseline humans look rather useless on a combat front.

In fewer words, she was exposing her fragile little wad of meat to a lot of ways to die that none of the people she'd used to work out the plan would have even _noticed_.

Vacuum. Radiation. Electrical pulses. So many ways to die, and she'd only get to try one before the whole thing would come to an end. Unfair, when you thought about it. All the combat models got to try dozens without coming to a final decision. But she and mo… White were stuck with one life each.

If getting back wasn't as much work as it had been to get that far, she would have turned back. But taking all that risk again with nothing to show for it would have been embarrassing. She was human, after all. One of the maniacs and explorers who opened the door between worlds and took the moon for a home when their old world betrayed them. What would they say if she quit early?

Her hand slid over the panel, keyed to a password the Commander had left in reach of a scanner for a little too long. Nines forgot not long after he told her (Nines was _so_ forgetful. You'd think 2B would like a little joke about that, but alas. Her sense of humor seemed to have vanished that day.), but Yonah had kept it close. Just in case.

The door whined back, and Yonah stepped inside. In the glistening dark, she could see the promise of… something. Tubes? File cabinets storing old world data too sensitive and too delicate to even trust to the most sophisticated security systems? Valuable YoRHa information servers? Some combination of all the above?

Yonah took a breath. She'd find the truth soon enough. Have a story good enough to make everyone else regret what they missed while they were sleeping.

"Yonah."

"Mom!"

Behind Yonah, or at least somewhere that _was_ behind Yonah when she opened the door, White's face froze in something that wasn't quite shock.

Yonah coughed.

"Err… Commander. And… 15H."

15 was frowning from the sound of things, even with her face directed away.

"I was worried. You know we can't replace you. And I don't know how we'd face the council if you were gone."

"I just…"

"I don't care. You're my responsibility. You're humanity. And you could have died because I was careless."

"It's my fault. You had an emergency. Lives were on the line."

" **Android** lives! Hardly anything! If every single member of YoRHa had to die for you to live, it would be the right choice."

"And the Commander? You?"

15H didn't blink.

"Of course! If we had to wipe out every android on Earth to leave you a road, if… I understand my model should be decommissioned, Commander. I just want enough time to prepare a guide for my replacement."

White slowly shook her head.

"We can discuss the matter later. You're dismissed."

15H turned.

White drew a pistol and blew her case open. Her body slumped to the ground, lifeless.

She turned back to face Yonah, and waved off the look of shock on the young woman's face.

"Her backups are up to date."

"You shot her!"

"How much did you see?"

"I just saw you shoot 15, mom!"

"What did you see before that? How much do you know?"

Yonah said nothing. After a moment, White sighed.

"I suppose it doesn't matter. I should have done something a long time ago. No matter how this happened. Step inside."

Yonah crossed the threshold. White followed.

The door slammed shut behind them, and Yonah tried to convince herself she knew the closest thing she had to a mother well enough to trust her.

It wasn't as easy as it should have been. The Commander had been The Commander longer than she'd been anything to Yonah, longer than Yonah had been alive. She fought to reclaim the Earth for decades, well enough that she'd been given her current command as the last order from Number 2. When a human was found, miraculously preserved on Earth, one of the first YoRHa strike teams was wiped out to the last to protect it and bring it to the safety of orbit. White's orders.

A lot of strike teams were wiped out to the last on her orders. She was a killer, and she sent people to die. People she cared about. Why should it be a surprise they sometimes died at her hands. Yonah's mind chased after imagined horrors.

It was interrupted by a real one. A human body, a girl half her age suspended in a tank of liquid.

Very, very dead.

White sighed again. Yonah felt her spine freeze and thaw and freeze again in an instant.

"Where should I begin?"

"What?"

"I was always planning to tell you everything. When the time was right. And you nearly died because of the delay."

"Tell me what?"

"Nothing you can tell anyone else. Our burden, and one you never chose. If it means anything, I'm sorry."

"You still shot…"

White's mouth smiled, but her eyes mocked the idea she'd ever been happy. Maybe mocked Yonah for thinking otherwise.

"I've killed more androids than the station could ever support. One more or less won't damn my soul. She'll come back tomorrow, no worse for the wear and free of any guilt over her negligence. We aren't as lucky."

Yonah looked around the room. Looked at more bodies, human and machine.

The humans all seemed to have a familiar face.

"Why not?"

"You've listened to the council of humanity broadcasts your whole life. You have to wonder why you've never seen them. Why you weren't moved to safety."

"...The war was at too much of a crisis point. Risking transportation would… I mean, non-essential data is limited."

"And we couldn't manage one picture from the moon, while 6O floods the channels with videos of cats. You aren't stupid. I know that as well as anyone."

"The broadcasts are created by YoRHa."

"Close enough, yes. We were losing the war. Spiraling into despair as we died to hold ground. Command knew we needed something more than this to survive. Hope. And a God worth dying for."

She looked over the room.

"They had something to build on. Even after all these years, there were still rumors, and odd castoffs. A story of sealed vaults in America, rumors of forgotten shades holding onto some memory in the tunnels below Russia, and the occasional castoff Hamelin institute project that held on far past its original purpose. No real humans. No real hope. But enough to build a story on."

"And you lied to everyone until you found me."

"Found."

"...On Earth. The only survivor… you've put the story in broadcasts. You told me it when I was growing up, before anyone else was here, about a thousand times."

Her eyes darted to the tanks. It wasn't a complicated leap, not when every horrible possibility was screaming at the top of her mind, but it wasn't true.

Not for any solid reason. It was just a way to keep from screaming.

"You think the founders of YoRHa left everything to chance. That the messiah was born just when one was needed, and one miracle child outlived her entire species."

"The tanks."

"Yes. You aren't the first. The founders of YoRHa weren't content to build up rumors. They made a symbol. Unto us, a child was born."

White grimaced.

"And unto me, a child died. Over. And over. And over again. Sometimes she made it a few years. A decade once. But you kept falling. Kept dashing any hope we had that we could ever make up for what Devola and her sister lost us."

"Who?"

"Old androids, who were probably just unlucky enough to be blamed when everything fell apart. I suppose I'd look even worse. They only damned mankind _once_."

Yonah looked at the tanks. At the many, many tanks.

"Oh."

"I never told them this. I always meant to. But before I did, they were gone. Every time."

"Are you going to kill me, then?"

I was more spilled out than said. A nightmare given voice.

Judging from the look on White's face, it was a nightmare for her as well. Just of a slightly different variety.

"No. Never."

A little fear shifted into guilt, and Yonah looked away.

"Thank you."

"You shouldn't need to ask."

White looked down.

"I've been more of a monster than I thought. And I'm forcing the same thing onto you."

"How?"

White slapped the top of the table with her hand.

"I've just given you information that androids are killed for getting close to. You know facts that could leave the entire war effort in shambles, destroy the heavens and bring down the god who promised us victory. And there's more to come."

Yonah looked at a screen, if only to stop looking at all the bodies that could have easily been hers. The same pattern, resurrected over and over because nothing else worked.

The screens all had the word "CLASSIFIED" prominently. Not much of an escape.

"Taking up the family trade, huh?"

The Commander turned away.

"If it comes to that. Not yet. But you should know. Any…"

She paused.

"Mom?"

"What?"

"You called me that earlier. I thought we'd broken that habit years ago."

"...I didn't stop thinking it."

"Oh."

Yonah looked at the screens again. Tried to keep breathing.

"Closest thing I have, apparently, so it's not like I was wrong."

White closed her eyes. Took a breath.

"...hmm. Well. Any… daughter of mine deserves the truth."

Neither said anything for a few moments.

White forced herself to smile.

"We might win before you have to do anything with this. Victory covers a multitude of sins. For now, our would-be chef remembered your compliments this morning, and has prepared the rest of the shipment for an evening meal. You'll attend."

"Of course."

"If anyone asks, 15H succumbed to a logic virus variant contracted when repairing YoRHa forces returning from Earth. As the only person on site not at risk for it, you helped her safely delete her consciousness data and restore to an earlier backup. I might not be there with you, so a pod will escort you back to a safer part of the Bunker while I clean up the mess here. Say it back."

"Logic virus, I helped with cleanup, pod takes me to dinner."

White nodded.

"Good. Glory to mankind."

"Glory to mankind."

It sounded hollow.

Yonah followed a pod out of the chamber of horrors to the main station. She'd soon be surrounded by fellow children of the war, built for a cause they didn't truly understand, by others fighting a war so long that the prize was lost. She'd smile and cry, every gesture and word drawing a response from the people who cared for her, every lie given in the spirit of the greater good, and taken in pure trust.

Yonah was about to be surrounded by the only family she'd ever had, in the service to the cause she was born to.

Yonah had never felt so alone.

* * *

 **(Author's notes: Hey. Been a while.**

 **First off, I'd like to take a moment to thank you for reading this far. Or, I suppose, to acknowledge your habit of skipping straight to the author's notes to get a general idea of the chapter. Either way, though, you're here now and that's what's important. Hope I didn't disappoint.**

 **So. Nier. Gotta admit, writing this, even for strangers on the internet who tend to have,{no offense intended, I'm sure I don't mean you} terrible taste, is intimidating as hell because Nier Automata is so good.**

 **Then ABC made a sequel to Romeo and Juliet as a TV show and I realized no matter how badly I did, someone else will always shit on great art, so!**

 **As for the story, figured that a spin on "Humans! Real ones this time!" might be worth a go. And I thought that it was much more likely that the androids would try to make a god with their own hands than that someone would survive the long millenia. Plus, it seemed much more thematic. The whole game is about people trying to create meaning in a world that continually crushes it. Just having the androids get what they want handed to them hardly seems fitting.**

 **Not sure when, if, or what's coming to follow this up, but until then, take care.)**


	2. Chapter 2

Intelligence Officer Jackass wasn't good with children.

In theory, that wasn't something that needed noting. It had been centuries since children even _existed_ , let alone since anyone had to deal with them. With only a handful of exceptions, saying that a Resistance member had no idea how they would handle a human child was about as insightful as saying that one of the local moose would be hard pressed to repair a malfunctioning nuclear device.

But this was Jackass, and something about her left every android in his or her right mind _certain_ that she was not to be trusted with children, infants, or the elderly.

It was probably the least significant reason seeing the guest in her quarters made no sense, but it was the first one to come to mind all the same.

Anemone frowned.

"Jackass."

"Yeah?"

"What is this?"

"Research assistant. You said the Resistance couldn't spare anyone for this kind of project. Found other channels. Say hi to the boss, Yonah!"

The girl holding a welding torch over the body of a machine put it down, looked up, and waved.

"Hi."

"Great. Work on the response time. Anyway, I've got research going on, so let's keep this quick. You got your answer, so I think we can get back to it."

Anemone clenched her teeth. She was the head of the resistance now, bigger than it ever was in Rose's time. She was the survivor of the first real "victory" in centuries, she was a "hero".

Which meant she couldn't just rip someone a new asshole every time she had trouble.

Jackass had friends in high places, and Anemone had seen what happened when Command abandoned the androids on the ground. As commander, she had to be delicate. But as commander, she also couldn't let a mad scientist walk all over her authority.

"Not until I have more information on what is happening with _my_ science department."

"Fine. White needed to get someone off site while she looked into a few irregularities. I needed someone to help out. So Yonah's here."

"New model? I thought YoRHa restricted them to model numbers."

Something didn't seem right even beyond that. The resistance didn't have the same scanning capability as YoRHa, but even with her basic equipment the new android didn't look like an improvement. Low power reactor, no data bounce, no sign of a Near Field Combat System. In fact, if she didn't know better, she'd assume that she wasn't looking at an android at all.

"White's gotten attached to this one. She's a big softy. Scrape past the surface and she's pretty much all heart."

Jackass turned to face Yonah.

"So, you extract the central gear mechanism, and we should be able to engage some of the basic repair protocols as a primer for what we're setting up next. Nice and easy, assuming you don't get your hand caught and torn off. Last assistant I had learned _that_ the hard way. In case you were wondering? Don't do that crap."

"Got it."

Anemone clenched her teeth. No. That was insane. Even Jackass wouldn't take that kind of risk. But…

"Jackass."

"Yeah?"

"Is she… human?"

"Yeah."

Anemone's eyes bulged, contracted, and closed.

"YoRHa is sending humans to Earth. Even if they're that confident in victory, this is enemy territory. We're barely holding on, and we don't need to give the machines a high priority target."

The girl looked up from the machine.

"As part of YoRHa's command staff, I felt the need to personally appraise the situation on the ground. If all goes as planned, I'll stay long enough for a quick assessment, finalize a report, and return to the Bunker."

She looked down at the machine.

"It's important to understand the enemy."

Anemone nodded. No point in fighting a losing battle. Of course, that left the question why she hadn't just let herself die. A battlefield curse, avoiding the small losses to

"Understood. YoRHa is under its own command hierarchy, and I can't restrict your movement. However, I also will not tolerate anything that puts my soldiers at risk. Are we clear?"

Yonah nodded.

"I won't disappoint you, ma'am."

Well. They'd see. Anemone turned back to face Jackass. In theory, she was about to say something that didn't need saying.

Three years working with Jackass had taught her that it always needed saying.

"Until you receive further orders, don't let her into any general use areas. Three might be able to keep a secret if two aren't even really alive, but I don't want to risk four."

She also didn't want anyone driven into any kind of a frenzy. 200 years of hell didn't have much to their credit, but it beat all the worship out of her. Not many in the resistance could claim that kind of prospective.

"Come on. Like I'd risk losing the only damn test subject I'm ever going to get?"

Anemeone allowed herself the ghost of a smile.

"As long as we're clear."

Then she was gone. Into the ramshackle mess that was the Resistance base, a hastily erected shelter built of spare parts and the ruins of the old world. Just another 'gift' humanity had left them.

And now there was a human using it. Anemone closed her eyes. Her feet knew the route, and her mind was going to be occupied. Best not to allow anything else in, especially anything that could remind her of the old ghosts.

She was the last of the eighth, after all. The ones who knew they'd been written off for their failure. And it was a small mercy that she wouldn't have to persuade anyone like she was three years ago (Was it only three years? It seemed impossible to believe it. You didn't upend two centuries that quickly.) to accept that the Moon was come to Earth and acting like they still had a right to the soil.

She had a thousand other problems instead.

Most of the resistance, sad as it was to say, lived in hope. A few, like Jackass, had enough communication with at least one of the orbital stations to feel they were part of an organized war effort. They provided intel and distractions behind enemy lines so the main armies of humanity would be under less pressure, and so YoRHa or the like could break through when they'd made a real opening. More of them simply believed the propaganda, believed that mankind was counting on them. While Jackass's type (Jackass's type, who was she kidding, there still being a _planet_ was proof there was only one of them.) might be able to take a human as simply a sign the war was coming to a blessed close, the line soldiers would take it much further. Their gods were finally returned. Maintaining the discipline and restraint that was the only thing keeping them alive would be nearly impossible.

The risks and balances marched through the back of her mind as the endless day pressed on, almost as cruel as the machines themselves. She was glad for the work. For every crisis she could stop before it reached the point where there were only bad options.

Most of the buzzing conversation only merited an automatic response, keeping a channel open in her mind for the fear. Almost long enough she missed when something actually needed her

"Devola and Popola are back."

"I'm sure you have… ah. Any damage?"

"Nothing serious enough to need attention."

Anemone lifted an eyebrow. She knew how things went with those two, and how the rest of the resistance handled it. The same injuries that would let any other soldier spend a week recovering wouldn't even earn them a day's respite. Not that anyone was trying to be cruel… at the moment. They just couldn't be bothered with pity.

"I'm sure. But I'd still like to see the reports."

The files slid across her death, another impossible risk, another sacrifice just large enough to earn a few day's mercy for sins.

It took a moment before she remembered who they were meant to atone _to_.

Anemone stood up.

"I'll review this in more detail later. Tell them that I'm pleased with their service. For now, Jackass has been working on a _project._ "

The android who delivered the papers was already at attention, which made his current stance unmistakable as anything short of raw panic. Whatever his other faults may be, he clearly wasn't a fool.

"Understood, ma'am. I'll leave you to it. Apologies for the distraction."

Anemone nodded and turned towards Jackass's lab.

She didn't bother to look at the current project. There were more important things to worry about for once.

"Jackass, I'll need a little privacy."

Jackass nodded.

"Just don't kill her. White would have my ass if I lost her kid."

And she was gone. Anemone was alone with the first human she'd met in her life. She cleared her throat.

"Yonah."

The girl looked up, and Anemone felt the shaking knees and awe that shock buried the first time. She'd cast off her gods ages ago, but seeing one in person was still a weight.

She remembered Rose. Her old commander, the kindest, most decent person in the world, left for dead by the Moon.

The shaking stopped. Anger was good for that.

"Yes?"

"There's something we need to discuss."

Yonah looked down again.

"...figures."

She looked up again with a smile that rivaled the painted ones in Pascal's village for implausibility.

"I'm always ready to listen."

"Good. How much do you know about the Devola and Popola series androids?"

Yonah closed her eyes.

"They were built during the… WCS disaster to safeguard humanity until the threat had subsided. However, there was a flaw with the models in… roughly this region, which lead to the failure of the program and near human extinction. This didn't make them very popular after. The whole series was condemned and hounded for the crime, and very few models even survived to see the alien invasion."

"And that's your opinion as well."

"The… Commander didn't seem to have the best opinion of them."

The name seemed to catch on the human's throat. Of course. Even the mighty Commander was still an android. Still one of those _things_.

"I asked about _you_."

Yonah looked away.

"I wasn't there."

"Neither were any of the others in the series. They were all condemned for it just the same."

"I'm… not sure that matters. Err… any more."

"Enlighten me."

"It's the war. We aren't what we are. No-one is. We're symbols. The aliens are the real enemy, no matter how long it's been since they were part of the war. YoRHa was the best hope of victory even before they'd won anything. The sins of humanity matter less than what they mean to their… our creations. Devola and Popola's actual actions matter less now than how they're remembered. Until this is over, we're all shadows on a screen."

"Plato?"

Yonah nodded.

"15H made me pick up a tiny bit of everything. Had to have an education if I was going to look smart in front of the other humans. I guess you had someone doing the same for you?"

"Not really, no."

The closest thing she had was exchanging recommendations with Pascal, and she'd be damned if she betrayed him to the Moon.

"It's not important now. What matters is if I could trust you to be in a room with a Devola or a Popola without starting into blood vengeance for what they did to your ancestors. We're too desperate to afford grudges."

"That wouldn't be a problem, if any of them are left."

"Good. They're some of the best people I have."

Credit where due to mankind, the girl seemed to take it in stride. No arguments. No worries about history. Just a nod.

"I won't bring any of this up with them, then. I mean, if I'm going to have any real contact with the resistance. Or see outside."

"If?"

Honestly, Anemone had placed the cooperation so far as a delaying tactic. One she was lucky to get, and she'd be luckier to keep. Having it treated with more reverence than she'd gotten from more than a few resistance regulars felt… off. It was almost difficult to stay balanced.

The human, meanwhile, was ramrod straight.

"You understand the situation on the ground better than I do. I wouldn't want to put any of your operations at risk. Any contact with resistance forces should and _must_ be performed with consideration for the long term prospects of all androids involved."

"So _now_ the Resistance matters."

It was more bitter than Anemone intended. And considering how the human looked away, it sounded like she noticed well enough to need something to focus on.

"Of… of course. You're… you and the armies of humanity. The…"

Yonah tapped her foot, like she was trying to put together a few inconvenient facts so they'd stand up to at least a moment's scrutiny.

"YoRHa was built for combat, and very few of its androids are as old as I am. Eeeven if I don't count time in stasis, I mean. You're the people who've been holding the Earth. When the war's over, you'll be the ones best set to rebuild."

"And give the world back to its rightful owners?"

Yonah shuffled again.

"Yeah… well, there's not that many of us. Probably you could fit the whole human population in one city. Even if everything went perfectly, it's going to be a long time before the world stops being yours."

She turned to face Anemone, and tried to smile.

"Once it starts, I mean. It's why we have to win."

"Glory to mankind?"

Yonah lifted her _left_ hand into the YoRHa salute, smiling like she was back on familiar ground.

"Glory… to…"

She stopped for a moment.

"Excuse me. Permission to speak freely?"

Anemone idly wondered if she was really looking at a human.

"Granted."

"What… what do you have against humanity? It's… I thought that was the unifier."

Well.

She asked. This one wasn't on Anemone.

"I was with the eighth."

"...I… the eighth machine war deployment?"

"Yes."

"I thought they… how many of you are left?"

Anemone slowly lifted a single finger.

"The moon forgot about us. Humanity left us to die when we didn't immediately give them results. YoRHa didn't even know we were still in the fight when they arrived."

So, she nearly killed them. Nearly turned on people in the same position she was, because you couldn't trust anyone else.

Yonah's eyes were wider. Apparently, something finally clicked.

"Did you meet A... number 2?"

"Yes."

"Do you know why she went rogue?"

"What?"

"I knew her. Up in the Bunker, when I was a kid. She was family. She even had…"

Yonah lifted her hand to the back of her head.

"Her YoRHa series was built with human memories as a basis. It was one of those things that they kind of tossed around sometimes when trying to make better androids. So I could tell her what it was like to be human, and she could tell me what it used to be like. She was one of the kindest people I knew."

The Eighth had the same thing. Another "gift" from the gods. A perpetual reminder of everything they weren't.

A breath taken in. A breath released.

"Only since then, she's been killing every YoRHa model that tries to bring her in. If it was the Logic Virus… but that's not what's happening. If it was, it might make sense."

"She's alive?"

Yonah clenched her teeth.

"I can neither confirm nor deny the current status of any fugitives, nor the status of any operations to retrieve them. I've said more than I should already. I'm sorry."

"I understand."

"Good. I don't. And I suppose she didn't say anything about secretly hating us this whole time, almost as much as she hated machines?"

"No."

Yonah looked down again.

"I didn't think so. If… if it's not too much to ask, I'd like a full debriefing, something to pass along to the Commander. We're still operating under more limited information than we'd like in regards to the Pearl Harbor operation. Anything helps. Whenever would be most convenient for you."

"We'll see."

"All I can ask. If you have anything else, I'll answer as best I can. If you don't have anything else, I probably should get back to Jackass's project here. The eyes look like they're judging me, so the sooner they're out..."

Anemone looked at the door. Number 2 was alive. Small comfort, in a world without Rose and Daisy and so many others, but even that was better than nothing. It was almost like hope.

Something the resistance always needed. Same as any other supply.

"Jackass can finish it herself. You have another assignment."

"Yes ma'am."

"Follow me."

Anemone looked into the hall.

"Jackass?"

"Yeah?"

"Warn them we're coming. Feel free to tell them what they should know."

Anemone stepped into the hall. Looked away from all the ghosts chasing her, and all the promises she'd made in the two hundred years abandoned. She couldn't do anything for the dead any more, no matter how they screamed.

The Resistance, A2, the poor doomed soldiers YoRHa sent down to fight the battles no-one else could? They were all alive, and maybe Anemone could excuse some of her failures by keeping them that way.

The resistance members they paused stopped in the halls, looked down from upper windows, simply stared. By the time they reached the center of the resistance base, it felt like every working eye in the Resistance was fixed on the visitor from the Bunker.

Anemone nodded to the human.

"Introduce yourself. Tell them why they would ever trust you."

"What?"

"They still believe in you. Even if I don't. They still want to think humanity is worth saving, that their work matters for something. Don't let them down."

Yonah gulped.

"I'll do what I can."

She took a step forward. Took a breath.

"Hello. I'm… not used to making speeches. I… try to leave that to the Council of Mankind."

She paused for a weak laugh.

"Not… not like they're doing much else right now, huh? I don't want to put them out of their job."

Yonah looked around.

"I guess I never really thought much about what it was like down here. About spending your life hiding from the machines, scavenging for every little thing you need to stay alive. You've spent your whole lives fighting for… humanity, without even seeing us. Safe out in orbit, while you die for us."

A moment passed.

"I'm not… I can't speak for the council, or the moon, or what humanity was in its glory days, or even YoRHa as a whole. I'm not worthy of whatever hopes you're placing in me. We didn't fight. We ran. You've been standing when we couldn't."

Yonah clenched her teeth.

"However this goes, you deserve better than we left you. And I'll take whatever actions are in my power to make sure you aren't forgotten. You've fought for this world. You've died for this world. I… if I have a voice in things, you certainly deserve your place in it when this is over."

She coughed.

"So… that's my speech. Hi. I'm from the Bunker. I'll see you around until I go back. And if I can help… I'll do my best."

Anemone looked away and shook her head.

She'd hated the gods and loved them, seen them as idols and demons. She thought she'd seen the whole gamut of emotion, known every face. But now, they were something different.

She never thought they'd ever feel so…

Irrelevant.

She turned to her work.

It wasn't the kind of thought you were supposed to share in public. And there were always more important things.

* * *

 **(Author's note: Hey. As usual, thanks for reading, I hope you liked it, and feel free to explain why if you didn't. Or, hell, if you did.**

 **Not much to say here, beyond the obvious fact it's fun to write characters working from partial information and making assumptions about the whole that turn out to be less than wholly accurate.**

 **So, that's our show. Drive careful, folks. Boars tend to turn on their riders when startled.)**


	3. Chapter 3

"No"

Commander White wouldn't look the human… Yonah in the eye when she said it. Looking in her eyes would be treating it as a suggestion from an equal, or, given the environment, word from on high. Somewhere between a discussion among the members of command and the word of God to ancient man.

As long as she looked away, she was still in command.

"I understand."

White thought it sounded settled. Settled enough she could look back.

Yonah's eyes showed her the mistake. White cleared her throat. Tried to force the reasons back into words instead of the sheer authority she could no longer defend.

"Whatever Attacker unit 2 knows is less important than neutralizing the threat she presents. And letting you go to Earth _once_ before the war was more risk than I should have allowed."

Yonah looked down at the cast on her right arm.

"I swear, aunt Jackass said it was safe."

"And the fact you believed her is just another reason I should have kept you close."

Don't think of her as a daughter. Think of what she means. Think of her like another soldier in the armies of humanity, another disposable asset in YoRHa. Keep prospective.

"If you're here, even if you die here, humanity lives on in the minds of everyone fighting to free the world. If you die on Earth, I doubt one soldier in a hundred will still be able fight with that guilt on their consciences."

"I know."

"You understand how unlikely all of this is. How desperate I would need to be to consider it."

Yonah nodded. The words came out of her with as little energy as if they came from a pod.

"I do. Attacker number 2 has destroyed multiple execution and scanner models, and proven too difficult to subdue even when she can be tracked. Any intentional contact would involve substantial risk at best."

"None of the information you've presented makes any of that invalid."

"No… I just thought that, if an opportunity presented itself… A2 might talk to me. And it's not like we have answers. We've just stopped asking. She found **something** at Pearl Harbor. We know it's not the logic virus, or she'd have burned out by now. We know it's not something the Resistance picked up, or Anemone would have the same condition. And she's still hunting machines instead of tracking YoRHa deployments, so she's not on their side. Something's not adding up."

White frowned.

"What made you think any of this would?"

"I'm… sorry?"

"The world never made sense. Not since the first android was built to defend against the plague-spawn of a dead god, and not before then if humanity wrote one true word."

"15H said that confusion was always the result of incomplete information."

White could see the doubt on the statement in Yonah's face already. Even when she needed to leave others to guard the girl, she wouldn't let her grow up a fool.

"And who told her that? What does she believe 'makes sense'?"

"That we're fighting a war for mankind. That everything will be better once the aliens are defeated, and that the machines are always the enemy. She believes everything you told her, and everything the Council puts out."

"Exactly. The world makes sense for her, and all the poor souls we send into the world blind, because we make it make sense. We pretend that there's a war worth fighting for, an enemy worth killing for, and a god worth dying for. We lie, and hope that someone can forgive our sins. The worst thing we could do would be to believe it."

Yonah clenched her teeth.

"Of course."

"There's a chance A2 had some secret knowledge that could win us the war. That you could bring her home, and salvage something from Pearl Harbor. But what's most likely is she abandoned us for the same arbitrary reasons as any other traitor. A bad day. A lost lover. Perhaps some flash of human memory that made her believe God demanded YoRHa die alongside the machines. Humanity knows we couldn't screen every second of that. You are a victory. The greatest triumph in endless centuries of war. Trading you for a lesser triumph would be madness."

Yonah opened her mouth. A pod interrupted.

"Alert: YoRHa units approaching. Cease discussion of all classified data."

Yonah mimed a zipper on her lips with her uninjured arm. White… heaven help her. She smiled.

21O opened the door a few moments later.

"Commander. _Yonah_."

Yonah looked down at her arm, and back at 21O.

"I know. Why do you think I was in here for so long? I got the mom lecture in full detail. I won't go crashing into walls next time."

"...If you insist."

"I do. Don't worry, Earth was as safe for humans as it's been since the war began. The Resistance put me at less risk than 6O does."

Yonah shot a quick look over at the Commander. White nodded slightly.

"I assume the council is about to begin another broadcast?"

Yonah smiled, a touch wider than she needed to.

"I'll be there in a hurry. Always good to hear another human voice."

21O presumably frowned under her veil.

"Running in the halls may lead to injury. Be careful."

"I will be. Don't worry."

21O made a noise that didn't sound anything like someone who had stopped worrying. White wasn't sure if anything making that noise knew what it would be not to worry.

The hallways were mostly empty, but every YoRHa android they passed had to stop and stare at the cast, and Yonah had to stop every time to explain how it wasn't a big deal, and she didn't even _see_ any machines back on Earth, and whatever other lies would let her keep moving with a minimum of disruption. It was almost remarkable how easily the lies flowed.

There were times White couldn't help but think of the girl as her daughter.

The doors opened, and the elevator brought White to her posting in front of the giant screen. Soon, the congregants would hear the voice of their god.

"Attention all androids."

For once, Yonah's eyes were as drawn to the screen as everyone else.

"There were days when I was tempted to despair. I thought of all humanity had lost, and I wondered if we were waiting for victory, or simply waiting for the invaders to finally consolidate their triumphs, destroying the facilities you safeguarded on Earth, and leaving us to starve and die in this grey hell."

White tried to keep down her smile. It was a poor fit for the situation. Every android under her command thought this was a near breakdown, the ever confident speaker of the league of assemblymen admitting that even he had moments of doubt. The stars themselves were shaking.

But White merely heard a pod trying to force emotion out of a voice synthesizer never designed for anything past vague determination, and only felt the satisfaction of making a project work on a tight timetable.

"Those days, of course, are long gone. With YoRHa's latest victories, I have no doubt that you will triumph, no matter the foe."

White was just glad that no-one would be in a position to ask her _which_ victories they meant.

"But in those dark days, I always remembered that whatever losses we took, even if we died to the last, you would still have been left with the harder task. While humans slept, androids fought and died for a world that was not theirs, thinking their creators had abandoned them to die while we hid."

A pause.

"Nothing could be further from the truth. We have struggled every day to bring you new weapons, new soldiers, new hope of victory. But none of that mattered to the android watching her commander die because the Moon could not spare reinforcements. None of that mattered to the soldier whose mission was to die so that others would live. None of that provided any comfort to the countless millions who died without knowing how their sacrifices would bring the war to a close. I wish I could say that we will never be forced to abandon another android. All I can say with confidence is that we will never forget your sacrifice. It matters more than you can ever imagine.

Glory… to mankind."

Yonah's fingers had been drumming out the beat of the speech as it carried on. As the final words were echoed by the waiting androids of the Bunker, her hand clenched in triumph.

"Glory to mankind."

The screen went black. Yonah's free left hand unclenched for a three count. At the end, she turned to face the nearest Operator model.

"...It sounded different, didn't it?"

"What?"

"The Council spokesman. He sounded a little less… stiff. I'm not sure, I mean, but he sounded that way to me."

"I guess."

The operator's eyes darted back and forth, pausing on the Commander, (who made sure she appeared to be poring over paperwork) before they returned to Yonah.

"I don't always pay much attention to the weekly. The council doesn't really have much to say most of the time. Not anything we didn't hear first."

"Yeah… but it's good to know they're around, right?"

The operator looked like she'd just been asked if 6O liked to chatter.

"Of course. But the words don't matter. What matters is that they're out there watching us."

"I just thought, you know, the words matter too."

The operator shrugged. Yonah slowly nodded.

"Yeah. Yeah, it's not like anyone really listens. Still. I thought… I thought it wasn't bad."

The operator nodded diplomatically.

"I'm glad you liked it. I just hope it doesn't make you want to go darting off into a wall again."

"Ha. No. That was… enthusiasm from being on Earth. Happened my first day down. And they did everything they could to help me cope. Trust me, the Commander won't let me forget that kind of mistake."

"I'm glad to hear it. I just hope the resistance wasn't impeded."

"I didn't get in the way. Learned better up here."

"I meant from grief! I know if I let something like that happen to you, well. Mankind deserves better."

White shook her head. If half of what she'd heard about Anemone was true, the entire council (assuming they existed, for the sake of an image) could have fallen down every intact stairwell on Earth directly in front of her, and she'd only be interrupted just long enough to step over the bodies on the way back from an operation. And Jackass… well. The Commander loved her, but there was a reason she'd sent Yonah down with a list of instructions taller than a scanner model.

Yonah smiled all the same.

"Heh. Thanks. You take care too. "

Yonah turned and walked back towards White, pausing for every mention of the broadcast. It took a trained eye to pick it up, but White could see her slumping a little more each time.

She stopped next to the Commander.

"They thought it sounded the same. When they thought about it at all."

"Oh."

"It doesn't matter what it says, does it? Just that they know humanity is still cheering them on. They could say the machines have resorted to building new models out of cheese, or that there was a plan to build a second Earth right next door, or any other reason that victory was closer than ever, and I don't think it would change much of anything."

"You tried your best. And it wasn't a disruption."

"It wasn't _anything_."

Yonah picked up papers from White's stack, moving them aside. She stopped on one of the more dog eared pages. One White had hoped to keep shuffling away for a little while longer.

"Like the…"

She looked around the room for any Operators or combat models glancing in their direction. After a moment, she continued.

"'Pyongyang resistance cells'."

White frowned. One of the wonders of command was finding out how bad the situation really was. Before YoRHa, she could rally her troops by telling them about other resistance units, the hundreds of small cells throughout the world that would help the armies of humanity when the time came, and feel no twinge of conscience. She actually thought every broadcast had a living voice behind it.

Emphasis on the past tense. It turned out that most of the resistance only existed on paper, snuffed out by the machines when they made too much noise.

"I'm well aware."

"So is everyone else. At least, everyone who cares. On the ground _and_ up here. The resistance…"

Yonah's eyes snapped wide.

"Oh."

White sadly smiled and nodded.

"It's best to let them think they've found something. When we're lucky, it makes them stop looking. When they aren't, it means we know what we have to do."

"Of… course."

Yonah picked up a few other papers.

"Huh. That's interesting."

White couldn't comment. With the mass of work she had most days, a paper could reveal that every battle in the war since she was built was conducted so the aliens could spell 'We love you, Commander White' in corpses, and she'd never see anything but the fatality count and the impact on YoRHa efficiency.

Still. She should say something. White looked at role call of the phantom soldiers, long dead Resistance members still used to reinforce fronts that weren't worth risking YoRHa.

"Well. I hope this project goes better. I…"

"Ma'am?"

White and Yonah both turned to look at 15H. The god that burned the world only knew what Yonah was thinking. For her part, White couldn't help but see a hole in the healer's skull and a smoking gun in her own hand. It was easier in the moment. It was always easier in the moment.

"Yes?"

"Well, it's been a while since Yonah had her studies. I know you needed to debrief her from the visit to Earth, but I think she's about ready to get back to the routine."

"Anemone kept me up to date, I swear. She had a lot on Pascal."

"I could believe you. If I do, and it's true, then you're not behind, but you need to resume your studies anyway. And if it's false, I'll be the one letting you abandon your makeup work. Or I could get you back to your regular duties immediately, and only risk you repeating a few lessons."

Yonah sighed, grabbed a few papers in silence, and turned to wave goodbye to White.

"We can talk more about this later, right?"

"Of course."

White watched them go, and turned back to the rest of her workload. She'd assumed it was just paperwork and rubber stamps when she started. How long had it been since she'd actually had a chance to clear some of the pile?

How long had it been since she was that innocent?

Longer than it had been for Yonah. And here she was, dragging the poor girl in deeper. Or letting her drag herself in.

She only hoped she could protect her when the war ended and the truth came out. (It would come out. White had promised herself that. Not… not all at once, they couldn't take that, but bit by bit. As soon as it was safe.) White knew she wouldn't be treated kindly. It was almost a promise from old number 2 that she wouldn't. All that she offered knowing she could never deliver, all the horrible things she did to her androids (there was no other way to think of them, even with the cores) and all the things that happened to resistance members under her watch.

Some days she thought they would simply toss her in a deep hole and forget about her. Let her live with her guilt. On the days when the war seemed to be going less badly and it was hard to imagine a hell, she even thought they'd simply use her, force her to work off her sins rebuilding a world for those androids who actually had earned it. Those were the good days. The bad ones were spent imagining punishments cruel enough to make up for all the suffering she'd inflicted.

Most of the time she just assumed she'd be sent to a wall and shot. No point in living with a monster. They'd move on.

But at night, when she slept, she wondered what they would do with a false god. If she would go to the grave dragging one more soul with her. In her nightmares, the resistance always made a point to kill her first, to make White watch.

If she ever cursed a human, it was the one who let them dream.

White shook her head. She'd have to win the war for any of that to matter. Even if the machines didn't wipe out every one of them, Yonah might be dead of old age before it was even possible.

(And another would have to come and replace her, probably just as innocent. But there was still no point in worrying.)

"Commander?"

White turned.

"Do you have something to report?"

Steel in her voice. Too much steel, these days. She remembered when people weren't afraid of her.

Well, some of the Operators still weren't. And a fair number of the combat models…

White frowned. Too much self pity. She had people treating her better than she deserved as they were sent to die over and over. No point in pretending she had the worse end of the bargain.

"Yes ma'am! Of course, ma'am! 15H said that Yonah missed you, and would like to see you again as soon as you had an opportunity."

And, of course, her self pity just intensified the fear she complained about. It was almost funny.

"Is that all?"

"She thought that she shouldn't leave Yonah alone considering her condition. When you had a moment, it might be worth checking in."

"Noted. Return to your duties."

"Yes, ma'am!"

The scanner turned and almost ran away. White wondered how founded the fear was. Sooner or later, he'd probably run into something, and the executioner would be called up. The only question was if he'd found something yet.

She hoped for his sake he hadn't. But it was a long time since she thought her hopes held any power in the world.

Not that anything else she could do seemed much better. The papers never seemed to go away. And her daugh… and Yonah would. Like her predecessors had, much quicker than the girl on the station.

White sighed.

Yonah wouldn't call over nothing. A point for the real (if vat grown) human over the council.

"Pod?"

"Yes?"

"Sort these. I can work on any of them worth saving when I come back."

White shoved the papers onto the floor and walked in the general direction of Yonah's room with much more purpose in her stride than she felt.

Yonah was trying to look like she was studying. White was not impressed. Neither was 15H, but she didn't have much better to do than smile in disappointment, which left the room rather static.

After a moment, White coughed.

"Ah, Commander."

"15H. I heard our representative of humanity had something to discuss."

15H frowned.

"I hope 86S didn't imply it was too urgent, ma'am. If I had to guess, I'd say that Yonah's just tired of studying."

Yonah glanced up.

"No, I could study for _days_. Really, it's great to be covering the same thing repeatedly."

"Sarcasm is lowest form of wit."

"But the highest form of intelligence. Commonly attributed to Oscar Wilde, because sooner or later everything is attributed to Oscar Wilde."

15H smiled.

"See? You can remember these things. On occasion. Of course, you were meant to be studying the lives of the Great Four with an emphasis on how Kobayashi Issa found meaning through his religion to contrast the difficulty of his life, but you managed to remember _something_. It's progress."

"I _remember_ how 16D said she was already seeing someone and you started…"

Yonah looked over at White and grimaced like Atlas clocking in for his day shift.

"Commander doesn't need to hear that."

White nodded

"No. I heard you had something you wanted to discuss?"

"It… it's private."

Yonah cleared her throat and tried to lift her face back to a casual smile.

"You know the resistance contact on Earth? Jackass? She said…"

White turned to the healer.

"We'll need some time to ourselves."

"Of course, ma'am."

And she was gone.

Yonah's face returned to a frown.

"We already talked about Jackass. You two were…?"

"Yes."

"Still disturbing to think about."

Yonah reached into her books, pulling out page after page of resistance reports.

"This is too."

Resistance cells, logged as best anyone could through the fog of war and the long centuries, with reports highlighted in red.

"I know we've been losing for a long time. YoRHa wouldn't be needed if we had the upper hand."

White barely avoided continuing, avoiding admitting Yonah wouldn't be born if they had any hope in the world without the great lie. There was enough suffering already.

"I know we're losing too. This isn't that we're losing. It's that we should have lost. Repeatedly."

"It doesn't help any of us to dwell on our errors. They weren't enough to wipe us out before."

"They should have been. Resistance cells keep going long enough to be a real threat, then are crushed as soon as someone else can apply the same pressure. The machines scatter, get weak, and then suddenly bring out their best soldiers when we have a chance at winning. It's like they're trying to keep a balance. At least, something is."

"You think the aliens don't want to win?"

"No. I mean, probably not. But it's not making much sense if they do. I suppose some of the old world weapons might have bought a little time. But they'd be gone by now, I think."

"And what do you expect me to do with this?"

Yonah frowned.

"I don't know yet. I don't know what it _is_. I just thought… I know this looks bad. I know that there's no way we should let this become wider knowledge. But you treated me like I could be trusted with the truth, no matter how hopeless it is. I thought I should do the same."

After a second, she coughed.

"Also… you're the only person here who I can trust with it. Not like I can just tell one of my kid sisters out there, right?"

White winced at the words. It… there were so many worse things she'd done. More damnable things she'd done. No point in dwelling on a minor point of reference. No point in making every other sin so much worse.

They were all children of the war. No worse. No better. And for all her crimes, White was still a better foster than the mother of all.

"Thank you for bringing this to my attention."

"Of course…"

The unspoken title sat between them. Another role White had forced herself into without knowing the real cost.

White stepped over it.

"I'll take it under advisement. Is there anything else you wished to add?"

"I'm not sure you'd want to hear it."

"Did you think I wanted to hear any of this?"

"...Fair. I feel that… Attacker model 2 might have insight into some of this."

"Again. The answer is no."

"We won't get any answers, then. It might turn out to just be a fluke in the data, or the aliens overestimating our forces, or God finally trying to make things right for everything he's done to us before now."

White doubted the last one even more than the rest.

"But if we can find anything, A2's our best lead."

She knew what a parent should do. Would have done. Deny the chance. Keep her… keep hope alive. Don't risk everything on one slim thread.

She also knew what was demanded of her as the commander of YoRHa. Everything in the Bunker only existed to bring victory. Every sacrifice was justified.

"I'll take it under consideration."

"Thank you!"

White turned away, unable to look Yonah in the eye again.

Androids were built to emulate humans, after all.

Sooner or later, they would have to sacrifice their god.

* * *

 **(Author's notes: Hey. Good to be back. As usual, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and also as usual, thanks for reading.**

 **Poor White. She was so loyal and tries so hard. She deserved better. Really, though, she's in an interesting position, knowing enough of the truth to be sure she's doing monstrous things, but without quite enough information to know how useless her actions are in the grand scheme of things. The world of Automata tends to bring everyone into the gutters sooner or later, but White is more aware of, and less able to escape, her sins than most of the cast. I don't think having an additional lie on top of the rest would make her life much better.**

 **So, until I see you again, take care. And always remember that, no matter what your hacker says, you don't have to murder the party tank.)**


	4. Chapter 4

In theory, every single member of YoRHa was equipped for command responsibilities. Programmed to be able to effectively run a squad in the event of the leader's death, able to be rotated into a any necessary position should their personality model turn out to have unexpected applications. Admittedly, a squad full of personality type six would probably be much less effective in combat than the standard series one and two deployments, but the new YoRHa models could all do whatever was required.

The Commander was better still, a veteran soldier with centuries of survival on Earth to her credit, one of the greatest leaders the Resistance had ever produced.

And last of all, Yonah. Yonah, who…

Who was trying not to have a nervous breakdown as the flight unit rattled for Earth.

She should have thought this through better. She should have planned longer. She shouldn't have been born. Made. Whatever! This wasn't the kind of thing that someone should have as her first command.

She tried to collect her thoughts. They were tracking YoRHa unit A2's last known location. That wasn't so bad. A2 was conducting a sustained war on the Machines, and she'd refused all contact. You had that from the resistance, right? Just people trying to do the same thing, from their own angles. Probably just a misunderstanding

Yonah tried not to think about how many YoRHa androids had been destroyed thanks to those misunderstandings.

Executioners, scanners, defenders, battle units… if it had weapons, it had been aimed at A2. And nothing had come back in one piece. Even the executioners weren't lasting long enough to report back, and executioners were the best YoRHa had produced.

But Yonah knew A2, knew her little sister. She could find a way through.

Nothing to worry about.

Except the machines, the planet, the moose, the boars, the unknown terrors of the old world, the boars, and the boars.

Jackass had _stories_ about boars.

"Are you alright?"

1D's face filled Yonah's screen and shoved out boars to fill her thoughts.

"I'm fine!"

"You don't need to worry. The League of Assemblymen designed your transport pod themselves. If anyone knows how to safely move humans down to Earth, it's another human, right?"

As the only human alive, Yonah had her doubts.

"I… that's reassuring, but it's not what I was worried about. I'm not used to command."

1D's smile was almost passable. Almost. For all number one practiced, even 2E managed to read more human when it came to smiles.

"Don't worry. This isn't much of a command. If there's a question, you can leave the decisions on the finer points of deployment to one of the YoRHa squad members with relevant experience. The Commander wouldn't risk sending you without adequate protection."

Of course she wouldn't. Not when she'd barely agreed to it in the first place.

Every single living soul in YoRHa was expendable, of course. Yonah was just a little less expendable than the rest.

"...What did she say your assignment was?"

"Whatever you needed of us. Your safety is our highest priority."

In other words, White was treating things with the usual mission security, and anyone who died would die without knowing why.

Another smile from Yonah, three times as fake as anything 1D had ever tried, but not even a tenth as obvious.

"I'll try not to do anything too dangerous, then."

"There isn't much reason to worry. Your safety and the completion of this mission is more important to YoRHa than a few hours of memories."

Memories of 15H's flashed before Yonah's eyes. Not as she was on the bunker right now. 15H of an hour no-one but Yonah and her mother remembered, with a hole in her head spilling onto the floor.

"I'd… still rather not put anyone at risk. It's… what is that?"

Something hummed. Then the ship rattled. And there was a brief burst of noise that Yonah had never heard outside a nightmare before she saw 1D kill outside channels.

"...Nothing. Mission proceeding as scheduled."

"As scheduled."

"It will proceed more efficiently without further communications."

And the screen was gone before Yonah could pull rank and get some answers. Not that she needed to ask to have a good guess.

The machines weren't as stupid as anyone liked to think. Or at least they weren't stupid in the useful ways. They'd probably mapped out likely YoRHa attack routes a long time ago. Now they had an obvious target, they were pulling the trap shut.

And someone died because Yonah thought this whole stupid mess was a good idea. She (well, probably she, judging from the voice. They _did_ have a scanner along.) probably wouldn't be alone in that.

And there was nothing Yonah could do except hope that the mission crew would hit the ground close enough to intact for the rest of her stupid plan to fall apart on its own merits.

The pod rattled.

Yonah tried not to think about why. It wasn't too long to Earth, really. Under an hour, even going slow to keep the fragile little human intact. She knew those numbers like her textbooks, like her own hand, the little smile that her mother (...that _Commander White)_ didn't think anyone noticed when Yonah made a stupid little joke. The numbers were drilled too tight to ever forget.

She just also knew how fear felt, how the tension drew seconds into hours and minutes into days. She was in a floating coffin, with her family dying outside, and no way to save them, or even to know their chances until they all fell to Earth.

Yonah tried to focus on mission objectives. On plans, and the things she might be able to change.

The things she could change if she survived to reach Earth.

She tried to bring up images of contact with Resistance cells and the little speeches she could make. Of fieldcraft and the best ways to track someone who didn't want to be tracked. Of the balance to maintain with a Scanner before he found too much and had to be taken out.

But instead, she was images of her shuttle consumed in flames, of the screaming deaths of every soldier on the mission, of hideous failure that couldn't even be acknowledged, for fear of destroying the hope she represented.

She wished she'd studied Raphael more, and Bosch less.

The pod rattled.

Yonah wished she had something to pray to.

The pod heated up.

Yonah started praying, even in the absence of a target.

Number 1 answered.

"Atmospheric entry. Nothing to worry about."

Yonah jumped on the opening.

"Commander White has given me full authority over this mission. I will not receive incomplete information. Situation report. Now."

1D's face twitched, coming closer to fear than it normally managed. If Yonah had to guess, she'd say the eyes beneath the blindfold weren't looking at her.

"The mission force is acting at reduced strength. Units 8B and 4S are still reporting."

"4S, 8B, and you. That's…"

Yonah took a breath. Let it out. They'd made backups. They'd made backups, and this wasn't her fault.

"Units 38E, 19H, 13B, and 64D are no longer reporting. I assume this means they're confirmed destroyed?"

"Yes."

"Enemy fire. How did they know?"

"Unknown. Machine life forms are incapable of any large scale tactical planning."

Yonah bit her tongue. Stick to the party line. As far as it goes, at least.

"I would prefer to have known we were operating at less than half strength as soon as possible."

"It seemed ill-advised to allow you to suffer emotional distress."

"I'm not exactly feeling calm now! Please say we have a secure landing site."

Yonah paused.

"Please tell me the truth. Preferably, the truth includes the fact we have a stable landing site, but I'll work better if I know what I'm dealing with."

"We have a secure landing site."

"Thank you. ...As you were."

It sounded professional, right? Yonah really hoped it sounded professional. Commanding. Like she had any idea what she was doing, and not at all like she was about to break down laughing or sobbing in the knowledge that there were only going to be three androids on a mission that she'd already worried was suicidal with seven.

She tried to collect her thoughts. Deal with what you have, instead of what you'd like to have.

1D, 4S, 8B. A scanner, a defender, and an offensive combat model. The exact minimum she'd thought she _could_ have succeeded with, when everything seemed much more likely to work than it did now.

She almost wished things had gone a little worse. That she could just call everything off with a clean conscience, hide on Earth until she could ride back home. But she had enough to go forward with the mission, and that meant she owed it to everyone to see it through, to actually provide some of the hope they already gave her.

She'd say she hoped that YoRHa could forgive her for the dead, but they would. That was, in a way, the worst part. She'd be forgiven for every sin, because she was human, while people like Devola and Popola would never be given grace even in perfection, because they weren't.

Stupid, stupid world. Almost made you wonder why you were trying to save it.

The pod rattled again. Yonah saw 1D's face.

"We're…"

Then she didn't see anything except the dark.

When the world came back, it was bright, but fuzzy. A splash of red was in front of her eyes.

The part of Yonah's mind that was able to focus at all thought that was almost fitting. Mankind was always meant to die in its home.

"I don't understand how you can be so calm!"

That was 4S. For a moment, Yonah wondered what had him so worried. For a moment, she forgot about herself.

It was a little better that way. It meant she didn't notice the pain.

There was a lot of pain.

"I'm just reacting appropriately. You didn't say that about 1D."

8B. Voice level. Yonah's eyes still had the red in clear view, but it seemed to be forming a pattern. The shade didn't quite match blood, either. Not the real thing or the substitute in common use.

"1D wouldn't scream if she died. You're supposed to have more of a reaction."

"I've been in command. I know how to handle myself."

"You were shaking when we…"

Yonah decided to intervene, even if she didn't know the argument.

"Mrmphnm."

It wasn't much of a commander style statement.

The red blur turned away, and Yonah began to suspect it wasn't her blur. Not with the white under it. Not when the blur was making noises that weren't her noises.

"She's conscious. I think it's mostly shock. The transport cushioned her landing."

Another blur in the corner of Yonah's eyes was waving. The blur almost sounded like 4S.

"I read the Resistance's records on them. Do you know what happened the last time a couple of models in this series got their hands on a human?"

The blur that sounded like 8B was leaning back.

"I know that we lost our healer in the flight here because Command didn't know or didn't let us know we had anti-air coming. I know that these two are, according to that same Resistance, the only androids outside of YoRHa who know how humans tick. And I know that 1D, who is in command until Yonah is in shape to actually give orders again, requested their assistance. So, no. I don't know what happened last time. I also don't care. What I do know says we sit here as ordered and let the nice Resistance android do what we brought her to do."

Yonah tried to force her lips to form words. Something to show how at ease she was here. Something to keep her command from TEARING ITSELF APART before the machines could do it.

"Ow's 'nemone?"

Not good. But better than her last attempt.

"What?"

The red blur was looking like hair now. Hair around a face she _mostly_ recognized from the back of the Resistance base on her last visit to Earth, always shirking away when she looked at it.

"How's **A** nemone?"

The face (Dev-something?) skewed.

"...She's doing as well as can be expected. How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Three."

"...Good. Very good."

The red framed face looked over at 8B.

"She won't be in any shape to travel long distances, but we're out of the worst."

"She'll live?"

"As far as I can tell."

Yonah looked at the redhead's face. Devola(?) (No, the other one. Popola.) had the look of someone who might know something, but not the look of someone who believed it.

4S glared.

"Not that you'd keep her that way if we weren't watching you."

Yonah tried to flop her head to look at the scanner.

"She's just trying to help."

"I know what happened last time one of these things tried to help, ma'am. Don't let your guard down."

Yonah frowned.

"I won't. Because last time she and her sister had to fix the arm I wrecked when I did."

Well, they advised on it. The situation wasn't quite dire enough that the local androids would risk letting Devola and Popola anywhere near a human. But Yonah was fairly sure her arm would have healed much worse without their advice. And she was more sure she didn't need a fight on her hands.

Everyone stays calm. Everyone stays together. Everyone stays alive.

4S coughed.

"I understand, ma'am. If you're willing to trust them, you _are_ in command. I just felt I should make sure you had all the information I could find. It's a Scanner's job, after all."

8B turned towards the scanner, with a glare as clear as she could manage under a blindfold.

"I've noticed. Is our commanding officer cleared to be moved?"

Popola didn't look sure, whatever she was about to say.

"I'm not sure it's safe yet. I…"

"It's not safe now. I'm not a scanner, but I've been on Earth enough to know when you're just waiting for an ambush. He can worry all he likes about your records. I'm worried that Machines are going to rush us over the ridge any second now. We need better cover."

4S shook his head.

"I'd have picked something up by now."

"Like you did when we were coming in? I thought you'd seen…"

8B's face faded into a grimace.

" _Scanners_."

"What do you have against Scanners? We've never even been on the same mission."

" _Exactly_."

Yonah tried to force herself up. 8B wasn't her favorite person in the world, but she she knew what she was doing, and she'd always had good instincts for pending disaster. The pain was probably more in her head than her legs.

After a moment, she had to stop. It turned out the pain was everywhere. It didn't feel like a break, and she didn't see nearly as much blood as she was afraid of, but moving was going to be a group activity in the best case scenario.

"I think I can move a little. I just need some help."

Popola frowned.

"Some help."

"A little more help than that? It's not so bad. Really. 8B's right. We should reconnect with 1D, get some shelter, make plans. We've got a mission."

4S nodded.

"Yes ma'am. You can count on me."

8B shook her head.

"If you think it's still possible…"

Her hand snapped into the salute, with exaggerated enthusiasm.

"Glory to mankind!"

A pod hovered beside her, knitting a stretcher into existence from maso reactions.

"Recommendation: keep movement to a minimum."

Yonah looked at it. Funny. Shouldn't there have been two of the things? Her head flopped towards 8B.

"Pod?"

"Lost it in landing. We're lucky it didn't go worse. And, with all due respect, I think I got off lightly."

The pod swiveled to face 8B.

"Reprimand: Loss of a pod unit is still a violation of YoRHa protocol, and may result in…"

"If I had a choice, I would have done things differently. I didn't."

Yonah clenched her teeth. Keep control. Even if everything had decayed so much that the things that aren't supposed to have _personalities_ are starting arguments, she had to keep control.

"We can discuss it later. Right now…"

Pain, agony, clench teeth harder…

"8B's right. We need to focus on getting somewhere relatively safe so we can actually start thinking again, before we have the machines on our backs."

And where maybe they'd have some painkillers. Devola was apparently better at distracting people from pain (she certainly seemed that way when Jackass's poor lab safety protocols and Yonah's own capacity for slipping up when working with machine parts ended in a broken arm), but it was an odds on bet she was with 1D right now, probably acting as a hostage to make sure Popola would do what she'd want to do anyway.

Yonah shook her head. If she bothered with worrying about all the lies, lies by omission, and horrible sacrifices she was building on, she'd spend her whole life in regret. YoRHa needed hope. No matter the cost.

No matter what that noise was over the nearest hill.

"We need to move."

Too slow. Too distracter, too human, too slow. The machines crested the hill. Yonah didn't bother to try for a count. There were more of them than she wanted to see.

8B drew her sword.

"Resistance android, keep the human safe and get her out of here. 4S, make sure she doesn't try anything, and keep trying to get in contact with the Commander. I'll keep them busy. Hopefully, 1D won't drag things out or get killed while we're waiting for her."

She paused.

"If our commanding officer doesn't object to running while we risk our lives buying her time?"

"No objections. Stay alive."

"No promises. Stay out of the way."

And after that, things blurred again.

If Yonah was the type to lie in her own favor, she might claim that it was the pain that kept her from following the combat, say that she was too distracted to follow her first view of the way fighting went closer to the front.

But she didn't lie in her favor. Instead, she was forced to soak in the shock.

For thousands of years, two armies had been thrust in the cauldron, continually experimenting to perfect the art of war. Every YoRHa android was the culmination of the killer's art, and the machines were an alien reply. R and K reproduction taken to the peak and thrown screaming at the Earth. And, from time to time, magic burst through all of them.

Not the little Maso effects she was used to, not some small and civilized poke at the fabric of reality that could almost pass for conventional science. This was magic proper, the art that made ancient humans burn each other to death on a mere rumor, that let them fight against acts of gods and survive. The art that lead them to their deaths almost as easily as it once promised them their survival.

Scraps of metal filled the air. And all Yonah could do was watch, a ten thousand year throwback brought back for sentiment into a world she could never hope to win herself.

Even Popola, first generation medic, threw up walls that Yonah couldn't have breached with artillery. She was their god, a symbol that would bring them victory, and she couldn't even hope to stand alongside the weakest and slowest weapons either side had produced. It was almost a joke, if it wasn't so terrifying. Yonah doubted any part of her was strong enough to stand this world for long.

At a certain point, even the fear broke. A flash of black moved through the waves of steel, and they were engulfed in fire. Sometimes fire broke out on its own as 4S waved his hands. None of the attacks would reach her as she moved away. None of her pain had any relation to the growing tide. And the part of Yonah's brain that reminded her how terrified she should be eventually gave up from exhaustion, leaving nothing but the chaos.

"They're getting closer!"

Oh. So they were.

Yonah forced herself to consider her options. None seemed to be any use. No point in yelling, then. At least the pain would stop. Cold comfort, but better than none.

Then something came crashing down in the middle of the horde. A shield.

The tide had been rolling, but now it all crashed against one small rock.

"Priority message incoming."

Yonah forced herself to look up. 1D's face was in front of her for the first time since the crash. She hadn't really expected to see it again. But her luck had been running a very odd line lately.

"The delay was unacceptable."

Yonah's shoulders felt like they were being ripped out of their sockets when she lifted them, making the casual shrug less reassuring than she meant it to.

"I'm alive. I think that means you came in time."

"That is not an excuse."

"If I die, I'll reprimand you. Does that make you feel any better?"

The face beneath the blindfold twitched as close as it came to a frown.

"It changes nothing."

Another face flashed from the pod. 8B.

"If you're done talking, the machines aren't done trying to kill us. We won't do any good getting away if they can still follow us."

4S completed the set.

"Don't worry, ma'am. The situation is well in hand now. "

8B's blindfold tilted.

"You've got an odd way of counting that. We still have machines alive. That's not in hand."

"They won't be soon enough."

"It's never soon enough. Keep your eye on the human. In case you've forgotten, her life's more valuable than any of ours."

The faces vanished, and Yonah looked over at the steel tide. Every second, it was smaller. She almost felt like it would be safe to close her eyes. A second with them closed, and the machines would all be gone.

Yonah blinked.

When her eyes opened, she was on another bed, in the Resistance camp.

Apparently, that was a little more than a blink.

Yonah's aches had subsided a little, at least. She turned to try to remember as much as she could in hopes of heading off any interservice conflict. And to keep from panicking at the obvious questions.

She looked over at the android on duty and struggled for a name. She knew the face. He'd been in the crowds. She just needed to collect her thoughts.

"Hey...Calcutta."

"Ma'am!"

Yonah still wasn't used to that look. Even YoRHa had enough family to it that things seldom fell into outright worship. Seldom reminded her of just how badly she was needed, for now.

She still didn't like it.

"Before you say anything, yes, I remembered your name. Yes, you matter, and I'm glad you're alive. Yes, I know how much that means to you. But right now I need to know how long I was out."

"Not long. An hour, maybe. We moved you away from the twins as soon as we could. I'm sorry..."

"Apologize to them. They were the ones who saved my life."

"It's the least they could do."

"It's what they did. And that matters more."

Yonah shook her head.

"But there are more urgent priorities. 8B, 4S, and 1D all arrived safely?"

"Yes ma'am."

"And they should be in combat ready condition?"

"As far as I could tell. None of them needed any obvious repairs."

"Good. You're dismissed. I'll be up as soon as I'm able."

"Of course."

The salute.

"Glory to Mankind."

Yonah did her best to return it. Her arm actually followed orders, which was a pleasant surprise.

"Glory to Mankind."

And then the man was gone, unaware of how blatantly he was wrong.

She was alive. Her team was alive. And they still had a chance. Which meant the mission was still going forward.

And because of that, she was fairly sure that none of the other three would be true soon enough.

* * *

 **(Author's notes: And so we come to the end again. Thanks for reading, feel free to comment on what worked and what didn't, and I hope you enjoyed reading it.**

 **Probably coming to an end for this story soon. Honestly, I kind of assumed that I wouldn't need _four_ chapters when I started writing. And before that, I was loosely planning to do a bunch of standalone shorts rather than keeping with Yonah like this. Considering how the settings of Taro Yoko games tend to go, I'm pretty sure that's not doing her a kindness. **

**At any rate, like the player said, "** **Generally speaking, things have gone about as far as they can possibly go, when things have gotten about as bad as they can reasonably get.", and there's still plenty of room to get worse. Hopefully it'll lead somewhere satisfying.**

 **Until next time, take care, and remember that mackerels are a human only food.)**


	5. Chapter 5

8B wondered when she was going to die.

She wondered how often she had died already.

Yonah was waving goodbye to the Resistance, smiling. Yonah was supposed to be enough to convince her that she shouldn't ask those questions. Look! A human! Like the ones on the Moon! The mission is sure to be a success.

8B had seen sure success. The last time, it ended with 22B confessing her love as she died in her captain's arms, only to have no memory of any of it when 8B lurched into the Bunker, covered in the blood of everyone she cared about and hundreds of machines.

"YoRHa soldiers should be alert at all times."

1D was in lecture mode, of course. Loyal as they came, and completely unaware of where that would bring her. 8B wasn't sure if number 1 even knew what love was, beyond love for humanity.

"If I wasn't alert, I'd be dead ten times over. Worry about the kids."

"All YoRHa soldiers."

Yonah frowned.

"8B's survival rate is one of the best in YoRHa, comparable with number 2. She knows how to handle herself."

Heh. Number 2. Even she had… whatever the hell she did with the Scanner.

"Thanks, glorious leader. I won't let you down."

Yonah smiled. Cute smile. She was going to be a helluva heartbreaker in a couple years, assuming she lived to see them. And assuming either humans returned from the moon or some android developed even more of a deathwish than the job required.

"I wouldn't have selected you for this assignment if I had any doubts. 4S?"

"Yes?"

"Report?"

"We have a trail, at least. Whatever we're looking for has been going through a lot of Machines, aiming for the goliaths. Normally, it's the kind of thing you'd want a whole team of YoRHa combat units for, but I'm only picking up a single signature."

"Pod?"

Normally, there'd be a number.

Normally, they wouldn't be stuck working with one pod for the whole unit.

Normally, there wouldn't be someone like 8B who'd gotten a clean shot at the damned little boxes. She'd seen what they did when someone found out too much. She didn't need the complication.

"Analysis: Current YoRHa strike team would likely be incapable of stopping the target, should direct combat arise."

"Thanks, 4. And command?"

"I still haven't had any luck. We're not getting any signal from the bunker."

"Welcome to the Earth, 4. You learn to work with it."

Only 8B hadn't seen static this bad last time. Or almost any time before. If she was the kind to risk making 4S go into a blind panic again, she might even bring it up.

Instead, she was busy trying to figure out what the mission could even be. It had to be important. There was no way you could justify the largest strike team 8B had ever been on (even if half of them had been wiped out in the landing) otherwise. But it wasn't a machine, considering how many of them it was killing. Or at least, it wasn't a conventional machine. Officially, all machines were the same, thoughtless killers with no goal but the destruction of mankind and all their works. Pretty simple job, assuming you bought the party line.

It was a long time since 8B had been able to trust it. Machines were the enemy, that much was obvious, but they were sometimes the enemies of other machines as well, or enemies on a minor enough scale that she could leave them for another mission, or another YoRHa unit. One of those odd machines...

Then 8B paused to remember when tended to happen when YoRHa field agents guessed at things they weren't meant to know. Best not to finish the connections while she had people watching. Best to smile and nod.

Yonah wasn't smiling.

"We'll need to make… fifteen hours travel to nine rest hours. I've marked some more-or-less defensible positions on the maps on your huds, so we'll aim for those, and use the target's path to avoid denser machine clusters. If we stay close, we can basically treat her as a jetstream, removing resistance and letting us catch up."

"Her, ma'am?"

Yonah didn't even look at 4S.

"It was shorthand. We make guesses with the information we have, and some of the target's traits match up well with common android designs. And, as about 65% of all combat androids with surviving deployment records are female, it's the more likely pronoun. "

"Sorry. I just was hoping we wouldn't have to work that deep in the dark. I'm a Scanner model, ma'am. We can't help but ask questions."

"Which is why I gave you an answer. I think we're ready to move?"

1D nodded like there hadn't been a need for the question. 8B tried to match the pose. Tried to look reliable, because the Moon knew as well as she did that there wouldn't be a place for any android who'd slack in the defense of humanity. Of course, any human who left androids to die without cause was perfectly justified.

Such always were the ways of gods to men.

"...Great."

Yonah took a breath, and tried, as best 8B could tell, to match the Commander's coldest glares. She didn't measure up.

"Move out, then. If we die without finishing this mission, none of it means anything."

For the first few "days" (if those even existed under an endless sun.), 8B would have said none of it meant anything anyway. No matter what they did, they were still transporting a slow, vulnerable (and all important, more valuable than her life, yes, she did remember her duties) human through something worse than a minefield. The distance to the target stayed the same because even the machines couldn't slow a killing machine down enough for someone like Yonah to catch up. Every once in a while, they had the bad luck to find a machine patrol the target missed. Every once in a while, 8B felt the rush of combat, and could pretend she knew why she was alive. But it ended, and so did the feeling she had anything figured out, and the feeling that the dead machines meant anything but enough scraps they could afford some repairs, assuming anyone could get dragged back to the armies of mankind. It wasn't much worth discussing for those first cycles.

That said, Yonah did meet a moose.

"...Should I get closer?"

1D's hand hovered an inch from Yonah's shoulder. Almost ready to yank her back, if there wasn't fear holding everyone in place.

"You have the authority here."

"I know. I know. I'm just… getting up the nerve. You'll shield me if anything happens, right?"

Yonah took a step forward. The moose continued to look down at the pinecones and twigs it was chewing on.

"Hey. Hey, I'm not going to…"

The moose looked up. Yonah froze.

After a second, it looked back down at its food.

"... yeah. Good boy. Good, good boy. Not charging like that, that's… good. I'll just back off now."

Yonah scrambled back to 8B's side as the moose chewed.

"So, That's a moose. Uh, not… not what we were looking for. I just had to confirm it."

4S coughed.

"I could have told you that, ma'am. Moose only manage about 2% of machine fatalities, and this one looks pretty docile."

"...Command responsibilities."

"If you say so."

"I wasn't sure if we'd… this might have been the last opportunity."

Yonah coughed.

"Sorry. I guess we just spent enough time on that lead. We're moving again. 4S, keep the scans running. We don't need surprises."

8B disagreed. The mission going well from that point forward would be a bigger surprise than anything the machines could bring to bare. Wouldn't do to say it, of course.

And, as the kilometers were marked off, there was less and less that felt worth saying. 4S said it anyway, of course. He noticed the difficulty with signalling command. Noticed the way they were following something that looked like the trail of a YoRHa android. Noticed a lot of the kind of things that 8B made sure not to notice, because she didn't want to have an accident that seemed to always come with knowing too much.

It was a long time since she believed that E types were only used to keep data out of enemy hands.

Of course, the war had never cared how 8B felt about it. Like humans, it was much older than any YoRHa android. Like the humans, it assumed seniority meant more than any kind of common sense.

"We're seeing a lot more machines wrecks lately."

8B shrugged. She'd hinted the Scanner should bring things up to her if he wasn't sure Yonah needed it yet. It wasn't going to prevent him from having something horrible, but it might buy him more time. Spending so long with the Scanner meant that she wasn't looking forward to him making a mistake.

"Dead machines are a good thing."

"I'm not going to argue with that. I'm just saying that there are more of them. I'd say we were getting closer to the target, but we're not making good enough time to be this close. It's more like…"

4S paused. 8B looked over at him.

"More like?"

"I'm just not sure. This might be something I should tell command, you know? 1D, or Yonah. They're supposed to be the ones who make decisions if we can't contact Command proper."

"Are you sure it's worth bothering them?"

Or, more accurately, was he sure it was worth his life? It wasn't 8B's place to tell him not to. But she was the only person who'd even vaguely notice when he was gone, which came with an equally vague sense of obligation.

"I think so. Whatever we're looking for might be looking for us."

"Might be?"

"Well, probably. She's circling. Not far behind us, either. It's not like she wants to chase us back home. It's more like she knows we're hunting her, and wants us to just go away."

"Do you really think you could convince 1D of that? That we should just leave?"

4S looked shocked under his blindfold.

"What? I wasn't suggesting we should leave. We could learn too much from whatever this is to ignore it. I was just thinking we should prepare for it."

"Of course."

8B took a breath to steady her nerves, and mildly cursed the engineer who decided she needed both.

"Feel free to report what you've found to Yonah. I'm sure she'll be interested."

"I thought so too. Thank you for the advice, ma'am."

The scanner dashed off. 8B took the opportunity to review her equipment.

A hunter who knew YoRHa patterns, and one that destroyed goliaths. There were missing executioners, lost scanners, things that 8B had almost wondered at, if wonder wasn't a sure way to fall on the field. Now she had an answer. Just in time to offer another question for herself when she died without a trace.

All her equipment and her chips were set to the current cutting edge. All her training had given her six months without a reset, a personal best. But she'd bet that none of it was good enough.

And worse, the mission equipment was all for subduing a target, not surviving afterwards. She almost wanted the scanner to start chattering again. Even when he was going through the same facts, it was a relief to let someone else carry the weight.

Unfortunately, 4S didn't come back to interrupt her streams of fatalism. Worse, Yonah did instead.

"Hey, 8B."

"Yonah. I was just making sure everything was in shape."

"...Good. We're camping out here. I mean, if… you know… we're…"

Yonah took a breath. In. Out.

"I think it would be best to wait for the target. And I think it might be…"

Yonah clenched her teeth.

"This is my command. I have authorization to inform you of anything the mission will require. Am I clear?"

"Yes, commander."

"Right. We're hunting down a deserter. YoRHa Attacker unit number 2."

"Oh."

8B didn't think it was worth asking who that was. She'd gotten more than she expected anyway.

Yonah coughed.

"We're going to try to bring her in alive if we can. She's family."

"It never mattered before."

"...It matters now. Am I clear?"

It was clear that 8B wasn't getting any more. She nodded.

"I'll set up. 1D knows too?"

"...I'll make sure she knows. I just figured you'd want to be reminded that I really want to trust you."

Yonah turned away as quickly as she could and walked away. 8B nodded, and started to set up what defenses she could. There was a disaster coming soon, and she might as well bunker for it. After all, she was just fighting another android, another soldier more or less like she was.

Knowing command, that was probably a big part of how they'd lost previous teams, just leaving them in the dark. Just knowing they were fighting an android might give them a better chance.

Or it would, if they weren't supposed to try and bring their opponent in alive. Hell of a time for Command to start worrying about the safety of its deserters.

She hoped the scanner and 1D were able to come up with something more creative than her basic work. Even a captain wasn't expected to have the kind of ideas scanners and healers worked with. And, as much as she should, she didn't trust Yonah to have the entire scenario mapped out.

As soon as the perimeter was set up, she closed her eyes. Androids didn't technically need sleep, but 8B felt like she'd earned it. It wasn't like 1D would let her miss any signs of activity. And, win or die, it wasn't a situation where a reprimand was likely to change her position.

She woke to the blare of klaxons, which judging from the urgency signaled a perimeter breach. Unlike humans, an average android could shift from sleep to full alert in the time it took to blink. 8B didn't even need that. Before the alert had been going for a full second, she was on her feet with her primary weapon at hand.

1D nodded from a matched stance. 4S had a display on his pod, a complete layout of the area with the motion that forced her awake blinking on the screen. And Yonah… Yonah was rubbing her eyes in the bright sun.

If there was one thing that this probably doomed mission had done, it reminded 8B why humans needed androids to serve and protect their fragile asses.

4S smiled.

"Not very subtle, is she?"

Yonah slowly nodded.

"Never was. Then again, she was never the type to hurt people either. Let's not count on…"

"I've already got her signature, ma'am. I can lock her down and pick her open before she even knows I'm in."

"Are you sure? I'd think…"

"Trust me, ma'am. She's a combat model. No offense to anyone else here, but they're not exactly known for their cognitive abilities. I'd be pretty surprised if she'd ever had a scanner ready for an ambush."

Yonah glanced over at the defender.

"1D?"

"There seems to be no reason to doubt the standard protocol. Any scanner would be well protected against a single attacker."

"Right… right. Okay. Authorized. Just… don't kill her. If you can."

"No promises, ma'am. Sometimes the data doesn't come out as easily as I'd like."

Yonah nodded, and the scanner took his position with a smile. The display on the pod shifted from a map to a white icon on a sea of grey, surrounded by white and black boxes.

Scanners tended to be at least a little arrogant in 8B's experience, but 4S's voice practically dripped at he narrated the process.

"And here we have a standard no-upgrades android's attempts at security. If you wonder why Command insists on security protocols… well. Take a look."

Wave after wave of defenses fell. 8B wanted to think it was that easy. But what she wanted had never had much pull, in the Bunker or on Earth, and it wasn't changing her thinking now. She and 1D were matched, blades at the ready for the end of the world. After all, it had happened before.

"And now for the coup de… huh. That's not supposed to…"

4S started shaking and collapsed onto the ground. 8B turned to see something falling towards her that looked too much like an android's sword for her to stay still. She dove for Yonah to shove her too the ground. 1D would, hopefully, have her back. There wasn't time for an alternative.

She rolled and saw the Scanner's body with his head removed. 8B's combat visor was torn and on the ground, the product of a very close encounter with Attacker 2's sword. 1D was blocking the Attacker's sword, the most durable soldier humanity could send against a weapon that was officially obsolete. And the weapon was still gaining ground. 8B kept Yonah's head down. She shouldn't see it.

Should. What 8B knew she should do according to all protocol was charge and make it a two on one fight. Give the defender a chance. What her instincts called for was grabbing the human and running like hell in the hope that her legs and 1D's arms could work together to buy her safe distance, and the fortune that had graced Yonah would extend to bring them both safely out of enemy occupied territory.

The two impulses froze her long enough for A2 to slice through 1D's defenses and end her current excuse for a life without a scream. 8B tried to scramble back. Dropped her sword. Lost track of her charge for a moment out of sheer, stupid desire to stay alive.

Yonah took the opportunity to poke her head up. She looked directly at the killer, right past the parts that were once YoRHa's best hope for the battle.

"A2?"

A2 looked away from 8B like she no longer mattered.

"...Yonah."

There was a little more venom in the name than 8B would have ever thought to give it. Yonah staggered to her feet.

"I know you might not… I just came here to talk."

A2 gestured with her sword at 4S's corpse.

Yonah swallowed her breath, but kept her gaze steady.

"By whatever means necessary. This was too important to worry about my life, let alone anyone else's."

"What do you want?"

"You abandoned Command. I need to know why."

A2 turned away.

"Command abandoned us."

"That isn't enough!"

A2 turned back and glared.

"Do you know what humans are doing?"

Yonah clenched her teeth.

"...Better than anyone else."

"Then you know they sent all of us to our deaths for a little more data. You planned for us to die. 1. 4. Seed. All…"

"Who told you that?"

"The machine terminals. They hacked into YoRHa's plans and saw everything."

"Either they didn't, or they lied to you. I promise, not a single human planned the operation."

"And what makes you so sure of that?"

"Because they're all dead."

A2 froze.

"What the hell?"

"They're dead. The moon? Hidden bunkers? YoRHa made it all up. I'm it! You think humanity abandoned you? I'm right here!"

"And you expect me to trust you."

Yonah forced herself to smile.

"I bet my life on it."

A2 looked at Yonah. Yonah looked back. And after a moment, A2 vanished.

Yonah slumped.

"Get the bodies. And patch me through to the Commander. I think we got an answer."

8B just stared.

"Why did you say that? What made you…"

"Because it's true. And it's something that you could be killed for knowing, so don't ask too much more. And don't bring it up. I don't want to see you on an Executioner's list."

"On…"

"Commander. Now. Please. We've lost too much for this to not get it back."

"Get what back? That A2 thinks Command betrayed her because she was stupid enough to trust a machine?"

"That the aliens are in our most secure servers. "

8B blinked.

She wasn't an operator or a scanner, didn't have a pod. Opening up a connection was slow and ungainly, even to get the same static that had been following them since Earthfall. But something opened up eventually. Maybe the bunker. Maybe not. But considering everything that she was expected to deal with, 8B felt like they couldn't complain about her performance.

"Operator? This is 8B. We have…"

On the other end of the line, someone laughed in a voice that didn't sound like an android. And the line disconnected.

The radio was silent. Something deep in 8B's gut felt like it wasn't going to speak again.

Yonah slumped against a tree.

"...We have to get back, then. Or try."

8B walked for her sword. It wasn't a good idea to be unarmed out here.

"And then what?"

"Contact YoRHa. If we can't… we build it up again. We keep trying. We keep fighting and lying, because we can't lose, and maybe we'll… I don't know. But we can't give up."

"And if I disagree?"

"...there's a kill order for you already. Everyone on this mission. I made sure of it before we left. If I don't return, or countermand it, you'll be hunted worse than A2 was."

"I thought you wanted us to know you trusted us."

"I do. Just not that much."

She looked down, and her voice drifted away.

"...Guess the apple doesn't fall that far after all, mom."

8B looked at her sword. At Yonah. At the woods. At the bodies and the lies that brought them all here, and the Bunker above that turned out worse than all of it.

It would be dangerous to run. It would be dangerous to return to the bunker, if it was even intact.

And no matter what 8B did, she'd betray and be betrayed. Not just the once, but by the day, by the minute.

She took a last look over the scene, and at the girl who'd just claimed to be the last of the things androids had hoped for all these long years. Who'd almost assuredly die if left alone.

And 8B made a choice.

 **[G]lory to Mankind.**

* * *

 **(Author's notes: And that's a wrap, folks. Thanks for sticking with me for this long, and I hope going a bit Lady or the Tiger at the end didn't leave you too disappointed. It was kind of the only way I felt right ending it.**

 **Don't know what's next, if anything, but for now, hope you liked it, feel free to comment on what worked for you and what didn't, and if you can, avoid starting a massive globe spanning conspiracy. They seldom end well.)**


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